Judge: Ex-employee can't discuss details

The Seattle Times reports on speech at work:

Swedish Medical Center can bar a former employee from speaking in detail about his belief that the hospital's program for detecting medical mistakes is seriously flawed, a King County Superior Court judge has ruled.

Judge Linda Lau rejected free-speech claims raised by the former employee, Riccardo Spurgeon, ruling that state law prohibits him from disclosing the information he reviewed during an 18-day stint as a performance-improvement coordinator at the Seattle medical center. Spurgeon was fired by Swedish on July 29.

Under state law, hospitals are required to conduct peer review — evaluating the performance of doctors, including medical outcomes and complaints about care.

"The Legislature has determined that the public has a compelling interest in maintaining the confidentiality of quality improvement, peer review, and patient health care information," Lau wrote in a six-page order issued late Wednesday.

You haven't heard the last of this one.